SpazeDwarf planet, asteroid belt
Ceres
The largest object in the asteroid belt. NASA’s Dawn found bright salt deposits left by briny water from below.
- Size
- 964.4 × 964.2 × 891.8 km
- Orbit
- 4.6 years
- Distance from Sun
- 2.6 to 3 AU
- Day
- 9.1 hours
- Gravity
- 0.029 g
- Reflects
- 9% of sunlight
- Visited by
- Dawn, 2015–2018
Can we live on Ceres?
Air: only a faint trace of H₂O vapour (transient), far too thin to breathe. You’d live in sealed, pressurised habitats.
Gravity: 0.03 g. Someone who weighs 70 kg on Earth would weigh 2 kg there.
Ground: Clay, carbonates and brine; bright sodium carbonate salt in Occator crater.
Atmosphere
- H₂O vapour (transient)
Measured by Dawn